


Detroit: Staying Alive

by Medli_ng



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Along with Alice and Luther, Carl will be 53 instead of 75, Connor can do a lot more stuff, Connor cannot show he is a robot, Connor’s past is mostly a mystery, I don’t really know what to put here, Kara exists for sure in this, Like Sumo’s vest becomes a collar, More differences, Most of it is pretty similar to Undead West, So MatPat’s theory doesn’t work here, Sumo is more energetic, Zombies can only decay so far before stopping, but I don’t want to keep writing tags, except for a few differences, unless he wants to get disassembled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-05-30 13:44:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15097862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medli_ng/pseuds/Medli_ng
Summary: So this is my version of a zombie au. I got inspired by DarknessRequiem and their story Undead West. So go read that. And if you actually read it and can help me make the story better, I would love to read what you have to type.Anyways, this is the actual summary.The zombie apocalypse actually happened in Detroit: Become Human, and it happened world wide, so there is no escaping it. Markus and his friends, along with his dad and brother, make it to a freight ship called Jericho, that is the middle of a new -naturally made- desert. Then Connor and Hank get spotted by Markus, North, Josh, and Simon. Hank and Connor are taken to Jericho and now they have to figure out how to get rid of the virus. Only problem is, they can’t do it because one of the main characters was the reason why the virus exists, and the only one who can end it. But they can only save those they care for, and that person cares for only one other in this world. (Not in a lover way, idiots.) Can the main characters figure out who this is, and can that person open up to save them all? Come and find out.Or not.





	1. Prologue

_July 7, 2010_

_Dear Stern,_

_How long has it been since the last time we saw each other? I don’t remember. You should come over sometime, to visit me and Carl. Don’t worry, my wife knows all about you, and she wants to meet you one day._

_Anyways, I wanted you to see something. I won’t go into too much detail in this letter, so you should come on over. Anyways, something fell out of the sky and dropped into my backyard. When I went out to see what it was, my eyes almost popped out. It was a robot with a music box! The robot’s torso was badly burned and in need of repair, but the music box and the rest of its body was perfectly fine._

_I already told Carl about this, and he told me to go for it, so I am. I am going to repair that robot. Granted, it will take a lot of effort and time, but I feel like I should help save the robot, bring it back to life. Carl said he would help me, and I was hoping you would._

_Please help me,_

_~~~~ ~~~~~~~~_

 

_July 8, 2010_

_Dear A~~~r~~~,_

_Of course I’d help you! And I always did want to meet your wife. I’ll come over in 3 days, since I have a lot of work to do. But don’t worry, I’ll be free for awhile._

_See you in 3 days,_

_Amanda Stern_

 

 

_September 22, 2023_

_Dear Stern,_

_I DID IT! I finally finished the robot!!! Yes, it took 13 years, but I managed to do it! No, we finally managed to do it. Well, all it did was move its head and twitch its fingers, but it woke up! IT WOKE UP!!! I am so happy! Now C~~~ can finally talk with it!_

_Carl already came over to check it out, but I didn’t feel right when thinking about how you didn’t know. So I wrote you this letter to make it feel like 13 years didn’t just go by like that. Come by when you can, ‘kay?_

_Sincerely,_

_H~~~ ~~d~~~on_

 

 

_September 29, 2023_

_Dear ~n~~~s~~_

_I am finally free from work and I will visit you in 2 days time. Sorry for making it feel so professional, but I have to practice. I do have a lot of conferences with my work. You understand, right? Oh, and has ~o~~ and M~~~u~ grown up to be 12 already? Seems like just yesterday they were only toddlers!_

_See you in 2 days,_

_Amanda Stern_

 

_September 30, 2023_

_Dear Amanda,_

_~~~~~~ has been so much fun lately! Oh, wait, sorry. The robot’s name is ~~~~~~, and according to ~~~~~~, it was designated to him by his first ever friend, Tsuki. Or, whatever her real name is. He told me it was only part of her name, but he can’t remember the entirety of it._

_Tsuki is... strange. The stories he tells me are actually very strange, and yet all of them have this ring of truth. I’ll talk more about her when you get over here._

_Anyways, ~~~e had a growth spurt. He’s taller than ~ar~~~ right now, and yet smaller than ~~~~~~ by a whole lot. I hope you get here soon, because right now I just want to tell you all about what ~~~~~~ has done these past few days._

_Sincerely,_

_~~~k ~~~e~~~~_

 

 

_October 4, 2023_

_Dear Stern,_

_I fucking hate you! I gave you my hospitality, trust you enough to not be so cruel to ~~~~~~, and yet all this time you have been backstabbing me by torturing him. You are not fucking welcome anymore._

_You have cursed us all! Did you forget what is in ~~~~~~’s memory log? What happened to those who hurt him?! And yet you went ahead and tried to fucking disassemble him! And burn my house down! You killed Cole! My sweet little child is now buried underground, along with his mother. You have cursed all of humanity, and I hope you’re the first to be cursed._

_Hope you fucking die,_

_Hank Anderson_

 

 


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is just showing what normal life is now for both Markus in Jericho and Connor with Hank and Sumo. And that is really it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry my chapters are so short. When I have more time and I don’t feel like listening to music or playing video games I will try to make my chapters longer. So... Yeah.

     Markus felt the breeze blow gently on his face, and watched the sun set. The sky was painted in the brilliant shades it always had been before the apocalypse, and always will. Since it never changed even though his life had, it made him feel comfort in that some things can never change.

     “Markus!” A feminine voice called out in the silence. Markus sighed knowingly, and positioned himself in a way that could let him see the door and the sunset as comfortably as he could. An orange haired female with an angry expression could be seen standing in the doorway.

     Markus asked politely, “What is it, North? Did Luther steal your gun again?”

     North’s expression morphed into a pout, which showed she wasn’t really angry. She responded with a “No,” then shifted towards the last glimpse of sunlight. A hum filled the air as the generators started up and lit up the room, or what was left of it.

     A few minutes of silence followed, as if to mourn the sun’s absence. “Carl wants to see you in the morning, Markus,” is what broke the silence. Markus rose an eyebrow.

     A smirk formed on Markus’ face as he decided to taunt her. “Does he want to see me for what I did, or what you did?” He was pretty sure red was all North could see. She sputtered for a minute before slugging him in the shoulder. Hard.

     “Ow!” yelped Markus as he clutched his arm. At this North seemed to feel better as she muttered less about “ the fucking idiot not even knowing how to treat a lady”. The wind continues to gently sweep the somewhat destroyed room.

     “What do you think happened here?” No response was given for the moment as Markus was caught off guard by the sudden question. Eyeing all the destruction, Markus simply shrugged his shoulder. North said nothing, did nothing, just stood there like a stone statue.

     Even the gentle wind stood still as the two gazed upon the mystery of the damaged room. A regular cabin it would be, except half of the room was nothing but empty air and charred wood. Sometimes, the lights would flicker and the air would drop as though there was a ghost haunting this room. Right now, the ghost appeared to be more silent than the grave as the lights were constant and the air as cool as a desert night would be.

     If Markus shut his eyes, he could trick himself into thinking he lay in the little green hammock in the backyard, feeling the gentle air. It was cooler then than it was now, but it was still hot back when Markus was still 7. Back then he had Leo and Cole.

     Feeling a hand shaking his left shoulder, he turned his head to see what North was doing. He felt annoyed that he couldn’t remember his younger days in peace. North held a sad smile in place, like she knew he was reminiscing of his earlier days, and softened to aid him. “Come on,” she spoke gently, “we’re already late. Better not miss dinner entirely, right?”

     His head slowly nodded, and then she was back to her old self. “I don’t want to miss dinner because you’re just sitting there stupidly on your ass.” She whined. As he expected, she held on tightly to his hand and ran through the corridors with Markus stumbling for awhile.

     The sounds of silverware hitting plates and idle talk whispered in Markus’ ear, before blasting him as the door to the hold opened up. Wooden tables and chairs were set up in rows across the room, so it seemed more like a school cafeteria instead of a cafeteria of survivors in the apocalypse. Markus didn’t even notice they arrived at their designated seats before Markus was thrown into one.

     A plate of steamed corn and a bowl of cheese slid from Markus’ left, where Josh was seated. “Here’s your plate. I saved it for you,” Josh explained as he gestured to the food. Then he shifted his gaze over to North. “Simon held North’s food hostage so she would bring you down to dinner. Honestly,” Josh sighed, “if it weren’t for us looking after you, you wouldn’t even eat at all.”

     It was at this point in time that North interjected their one-sided conversation. “Well,” North began, taking bites in between, “I heard that Luther is still looking for his family that he was forced to leave behind. Because of the fucking zombies.” Markus huffed in annoyance and was about to comment on the fact that she has repeated this countless times at the dinner table when Simon cleared his throat.

     All eyes in their small group focused on Simon as he stated a simple sentence. “We’re on night duty.”

     Josh and Markus groaned simultaneously while North cheered, albeit silently. All finished their meal before heading towards their room to get as much of their meager sleep as they’re going to get.

 

 

      _Scanning..._

_Scan complete._

_3 items to analyze further._

_First item is on the floor in the kitchen._

_Second item is on the boarded up window._

_Third item is on the floor in front of Hank._

Connor blinked away the text as he got up and walked over to the closest item to where he was sitting on the couch. Picking up the item revealed it to be a beer bottle, most likely what Hank drank tonight and forgot to throw it in the bin. Somehow staying impassive, he strode over to the counter where a blue bin was located and gently placed the bottle inside the bin.

     Pivoting swiftly on his heel in a 90 degree fashion, he found that the first item was actually the empty dog bowls. Carefully hovering his hand over the blue dog bowl, a light current of water gently shot out of a hole that opened up in his hand. After closing the hole when the bowl was filled, Connor got up and realized he didn’t know where the dog food was.

     Connor entered what Hank liked to call his mind palace, albeit in a colorful fashion.

      _Scanning..._

_Scan complete._

_Check the 2 cupboards directly parallel to the fridge._

Blinking away the text again, Connor stepped over to the cupboard closest to him that was by the fridge, and opened it. Some expired cereal thrown in the trash later with no sign of the dog food in that cupboard. Opening the second cupboard revealed the dog food Sumo liked most. 

     Efficiently carrying out his little mission he made for himself was an easy task. The only thing left for him to explore was the boarded up window in the living room, parallel to the locked front door. Analyzing it showed that the wood was rotted and wouldn’t last against a desperate zombie, and judging by how the sun was long gone, zombies around these parts would be very energetic.

     Connor was conflicted. If he left to go get some more wood, a zombie could attack Hank while he slept, and could hurt Sumo in the process. On the other hand, a zombie could easily get in here and would cause a lot of noise, resulting in even more zombies and a sleepy Hank wouldn’t help him. But if he left, Hank would never trust him to stay up at night again.

     He could always use that, but he wasn’t allowed to. In fact, he should never have to unless he absolutely has to. It has not gone that far yet, so he wouldn’t do anything. Not yet, anyways. He should wait until Hank wakes up. ~~But what if... No. Hank told me not to use it unless absolutely necessary, and it is not a problem right now. So I should wait.~~

     So in the end Connor sat back down on the ground and started internally processing, while on alert for a zombie waltzing in the house that Hank would never abandon. Connor didn’t really understand why Hank would cling onto this, but maybe it was about Cole and the wife that Hank lost in this house. Connor also grieved for the loss of those two. The entire family was his favorite, including that man that would show up with his kids sometimes.

     The last thing Connor thought before delving deeper into his internal processing, was why he had to be the one that started all of this.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are almost going to meet. Maybe they will actually meet in this chapter? Who knows.

     Connor sat up after petting Sumo to keep him quiet. He checked the time. It was 12:34 P.M. Connor picked Sumo up and gently placed him on Hank.  ~~This should wake him up.~~ Connor nodded to himself, then threw the empty beer bottles into the bin.

     The carton of eggs was on the top shelf of the fridge. After some deliberation, Connor decided on just eggs today, and some water. Thankfully they had enough oil for now, along with a frying pan. He took out one egg, since only Hank was eating eggs. If Hank didn’t want to eat them, Connor would force him to eat it.

     Hank finally woke up when Sumo barked for no reason. Connor smiled. It was right on time. Sumo always barked for no reason at exactly 12:36. How the dog knows when it is 12:36, he had no clue. But it was one of Sumo’s quirks.

     “Connor!” Hank half-yelled, rubbing his eyes. Connor somehow kept his stoic face on. Then Hank doubled over and groaned. “Ow... My head hurts...” Hank groaned very loudly. Connor sighed.

     At this Hank frowned. “Oh, shut up!” Hank yelled. Humming was all he heard as a response. Walking over to the bathroom was not an easy task for Hank, since he wanted to vomit the entire way, but Hank managed to get inside. Connor cracked the egg open right after he heard the door shut with a click.

     The only sounds in the house were the eggs cooking and the sound of vomiting. As soon as Connor placed the eggs on the plate, the door opened and out came Hank, well, after he washed his mouth. Hank wobbled over to a chair by the table, groaning with the chair as he sat on it.

     Connor retrieved the bread and the eggs and positioned them in front of Hank. Swiftly turning away, Connor walked over to the glass cupboard and fished a glass cup out. He placed his right hand above the glass cup and the hole opened up. Water spilled into the cup, and then it stopped. Then the hole widened a little bit and some ice blocks came out.

     Waiting until the water had cooled sufficiently, since it was the desert, Connor handed the glass cup to Hank, gently taking away the almost empty bottle of beer in the process. Hank downed the glass cup before putting it on the table, taking in a big gulp of air. Connor returned after flushing the contents of the toilet.

     Sumo whined, getting a little claustrophobic. Connor looked at Hank and gave his best puppy dog eyes. Knowing Hank, he just couldn’t resist. “Oh, alright. Come on, Sumo! Lets go to the dog park.”

     “Boof!”

     Walking outside was always a treat for Connor and Sumo. How could Hank keep them from doing something fun? Connor was walking on Sumo’s right, while Hank was holding the leash on Sumo’s left. As they rounded a corner, a zombie walked by as well. It shrieked as soon as it got too close and hobbled away as fast as it could.

     Sumo’s collar could sense if a zombie got too close for comfort and would emit a whine that would hurt zombie ears but not human ears. It was fascinating to Hank, and he told Connor -while he was sober, which isn’t often- to take some notes on how it works, since he would kinda always be drunk.

     Seriously, Connor feels as though Hank has the same tech he does, except he uses it for bottles of beer instead of actually using it for something useful, because Hank just reaches behind his back and when he bring it in front of him there is a bottle of beer in his hand. If Connor said this to Hank, Hank would just laugh, and then tell him that he doesn’t have the tech Connor has and that if he did have that tech, using it for bottles of beer wouldn’t be wasteful. Yes, Hank is human, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have tricks up his sleeve.  ~~How does he do it?~~

     “Well, here we are Sumo- Woah! Sumo! Come back!” Hank called. The moment Sumo took a step into the park he was sprinting off, tearing the leash out of Hank’s hand in the process. Sumo slowed to a standstill, then he laid down and started rolling in the mud.

     “Ahh. Typical Sumo. Come- Connor, what are you doing?” Connor held his arm in front of Hank when he moved to go to Sumo, then tilted his head in the direction of the rest of the park. Hank took a good look around. Everywhere he looked, trees were uprooted and thrown, having huge marks in them. Some trees were smashed, and others were left undamaged.  _Not for long._

Hank called for Sumo. At first he called out softly, then he grew more frantic and called a little louder when he heard a rumble in the distance. Connor grew impatient and simply ran for it and grabbed Sumo, obviously deeming it too dangerous to wait any longer. After Hank deduced that -which is impressive, since he was sort of drunk- he ran for his life as the rumble got louder.

     Since Connor was an android of some sort, he could discern exactly what the rumble was.  ~~Gigantic footsteps... probably a zombie that is 17 feet or so high, but with extra big feet and... a truck? They’re headed our way, and judging by how fast the sound is getting louder... they are going very fast and in our direction. They’ll run us over!~~

     Grabbing Sumo by the collar and Hank by his free hand, Connor threw them to one side and dove after them, just missing the truck as it drove past them at high speeds. The zombie was surprisingly fast and didn’t need to work hard to catch up to them. Just as Connor predicted, the zombie was around 17 feet high and had gigantic feet, with zero arms and a hole in the right side of its chest. Sumo’s collar whined as it got closer and the zombie started screaming in pain. The zombie slowed down a little.

     It turned to glare at Hank and Sumo. It seemed to want to stop, but it ran right past them. The collar stopped whining, and Hank sprinted as fast as his old legs would allow, Connor following suite.

 

 

     You could say that night duty in Jericho wasn’t very fun or safe, and that Markus had nothing to do the entire time except sit there until a zombie came too close and he had to shoot it in the face. You could also say that Markus had a meager amount of sleep that night before he went to Carl at around 7 A.M., or so his clock says. Another thing you could say is that Carl wanted him to go on an expedition in 3 hours and 20 minutes, because everyone ate so much last night. If you said all of these things and you added on that Markus was very tired and hungry, then you would be correct - since all of these things happened.

     Markus was not pleased. All he had wanted to do was sleep, but he couldn’t have that, oh no! He had to eat and get ready and stay up and have only one hour of sleep! Not only that, but Simon also clarified that Leo was the one who told him that they had night duty. Markus gritted his teeth at the thought of that name, and also at the high speeds they’re going.

     Not to include that there is a hungry big zombie chasing after them with no effort.

     Let’s start from the beginning. After they left the ship, North bet on her desserts that she would find more useful supplies than Markus would. And they were tied. Since they were put on the same mini group, and the amount of supplies found by a mini group was shared by the members, not whoever found them. Also, Josh and Simon found more things than North and Markus ever did. Markus could _swear_ that those two had a keen sense on where the secret supplies are.

     Once all the supplies were placed into the truck -which was so grueling and boring that I will not describe the completion of that task- Markus climbed into the back of the blue pickup truck while Josh sat in the driver’s seat, Simon in the passenger seat, and North seated behind the two. Just in case Josh chickened out and couldn’t drive anymore.

     Which is why, when Josh was having trouble buckling up, having a tree thrown at you is not the most pleasant thing. And the reason why North was assigned right behind Josh. One second Josh is struggling with the seatbelt, the next Josh has been thrown onto Simon and North is hitting the gas pedal and they’re peeling away from a tree crashing down behind them. The thing was, somehow the giant snuck up on them and Markus wasn’t ready. His legs were either dangling or skidding on the road as he clung onto the back door for dear life. A swift left threw him off, and the sudden brake to dodge a tree thrown in front of them caused Markus to jump in surprise and swing himself into the back.

     Markus clutched the back door and locked it in place so fast you would’ve thought Markus could freeze time. And then they were off again, turning right as the zombie came into view. At first glance you would think this was the zombified version of Bigfoot. Seriously, this dude was 17 feet high at the least, and had feet the size of a small crater, with a hole in the right side of its chest. It had no existing arms, and everything other than its feet was very proportional to its height. Well, the feet, and the teeth.

     Markus at first searched his surroundings for a more muscular zombie -like in Undead West- but then the zombie twisted its head to be vertical, and bent down to clench a tree between its gigantic teeth. Swinging its head the beast let go of the tree and that poor tree was hurled at them.  _Well, at least now I know where the tree came from._

     Markus shifted his body to gaze through the window and see what Josh, Simon, and North were up to. Josh was grasping Simon’s brown jacket while burying his head in Simon’s white t-shirt, Simon was attempting to calm Josh, and North... She had a terrifying look on her face. North was sweating all over, her hair a sweaty mess, and her hands squeezed the steering wheel so tight that he almost felt bad for the wheel.

     Her movements were jerky, as though she was forgetting to do the movements until the last second. Crates were slamming into Markus left, right, and center. Bruises were forming quick enough, and soon Markus was black and blue all over. Even knocking on the back window hurt, though it was worth it since Simon was already looking in a spot to his left.

     Markus was about to tell him what to say, when he saw some figures in the distance. It was broad daylight, so seeing them wasn’t very hard. But North seemed to have tunnel vision, and was going to run them over. The figures were running away, but they obviously weren’t fast enough.

     Markus wasn’t either.

     Just as Markus thought that he would have to see North kill some people, one of them grabbed the other two and threw them to the side, before diving himself. As Markus looked back, he got a clear look at them.

     One of them was an old guy dressed as what Markus would call a hippie if there were any around anymore. The only other person had a younger face, expressing his distress for the other. He had a beanie on, with a jacket on top of a black shirt -Why would someone want to wear a jacket and a beanie in the desert?- and black pants with some sneakers. How he got those he couldn’t fathom.

      _I should go to a shoe store, now that I think about it..._ Markus cut off that train of thought. He remembered that the third member was an animal of some kind, but he didn’t get a good enough look at it.  _Now that I think harder on it... How could the guy know we were coming? I can’t hear the engine over the zombie stomps. He never even looked back, and how could he move that fast?_

 _Hmm..._ He would have to think back on that man. They are strange, and the fact that they managed to escape...  _Wait. How did they not get eaten by the zombie? Is it that set on us? Probably has to do with North. I knew when she left and then came back all hurried that something was up!_

     So he resigned to ask North later what this was all about and deal with the zombie. Markus pulled out the shotgun he borrowed from Luther, and fired a shot that broke off a piece of the pavement. It was really heavy and was yet another obstacle to face. Markus ground his teeth and focused real hard on the head. He aimed a little higher than the zombie, and fired.

     Results pointed to the creature losing an ear.

     Markus couldn’t throw in the towel. So he held up the gun and breathed in and out. The truck zigzagged and Markus was struck in the back by a crate. Thankfully it was small, but his already bruised back couldn’t take it, and so the small crate toppled Markus. Surprisingly Markus kept his grip on the gun, but another hand took it from him.

     The one who held the shotgun so easily was none other than Simon. Securing a firm grip on the shotgun, Simon aimed the gun at the creature and fired. The recoil had no effect on Simon, and then Markus realized how much his arms hurt. He felt that he would lose both his arms, just like the zombie now lying on the road, motionless.

     Simon crouched into a position safe enough to lift Markus up off the crate, then helped Markus through the window into the passenger seat with Josh making _everything_ cramped. Markus had so many questions for North, but he felt that interrogating her with her feeling so shaken and at the wheel would get them all killed. So they all sat in silence, almost waiting for another giant zombie to strike.

     The sun had started painting the horizon a brilliant shade of red as the group made it back to Jericho. The guard -a female this time- took one _long_ stare at the stragglers before her and then faced the ship and called for someone to help. When another guard came over to help Markus out of the truck, he realized just how much his body ached, and how tired he was. Without realizing it, he fainted and fell face first into the floor.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara is mentioned! Along with Alice. Maybe Luther will meet them. Oh, and Connor gets in a strange situation. Hank goes to follow Connor when they get seperated.

     Once Markus’ heterochromatic eyes opened up, he ached like his entire body was a tooth with a toothache. Only even worse. Yeah, things are not well for Markus. The female guard -now he remembered her name was Felicia- appeared to have fallen asleep. He sat there, focusing on the sound of him breathing. Of feeling the blanket on his legs, and the cool air on his arms.

     Of him being alive.

      _Being alive is great and all, but what happened to those guys afterwards? Also, how had that guy known that the truck was coming? All he could hear was a rumble. But maybe he thought that jumping to the side would save them from whatever was coming. Yeah, that has to be it._

 _Wait, I hear Carl talking to... North?_ Sure enough, Carl’s voice drifted over the silence, followed by North’s cussing and voicing out her frustrations of not getting enough sleep. Markus listened in.

     “...didn’t you warn them of the zombie? You were the one who angered it, so why would you keep silent about it?” _I was right! North did do something! Wait, why am I happy about North angering that zombie? And that’s was why the zombie had a huge hole in its chest!_

     “Why can’t you leave me the fuck alone?! I did what I did, and there’s no fucking changing it! So stop interrogating the shit out of me!”

     “Calm down, you’re making a scene. Please stop. Do you want someone injured to hear, or the nurses kicking you out? If Markus was awake and he heard that?”  _Uh oh. Better pretend to be asleep._

     Markus laid down on the bed, left the sheet as it was, and closed his eyes. He also deepened his breath to appear to others that he was in deep sleep. Thank goodness Felicia wasn’t awake.

     Footsteps sounded through the hallway and stopped right outside the door. The doorknob turned almost silently and the door creaked open. Footsteps started up again and ended right by Markus’ feet. Markus focused on keeping his breath even and deep, and his face as relaxed as possible.

     “Felicia!” *thud* Sounds of someone scrambling to get up reached Markus’ ear. “Why were you fucking asleep?! What if Markus woke up, and you didn’t know?”

     Markus wished to laugh, but he had to pretend to be asleep. So he could have more time to think about how to save himself.

     “I’m terribly sorry, North! I promise I won’t do it again! But I had been working real hard trying to fix that new lady’s stab wound in the arm and keeping the little one happy that I just couldn’t stay up much longer! That’s probably why Markus fainted when he was in safety!”

     North scoffed, but Markus detected some softness in there that wasn’t before. “He probably fainted because of the lack of sleep, and all the bruises he had on him. It must have been so painful!” Felicia continued.

     Markus could imagine that North’s expression was one of getting offended, but Carl’s voice was the one that came next, and it was right next to his head, somewhere on his right. “North, don’t blame Felicia. After all, you were the one driving haphazardly, were you not?”

     North stuttered, obviously embarrassd by Carl’s words. “But it was because of my lack of sleep! If Leo didn’t play a prank on all of us, I never would have done those things!”

     “And if Felicia didn’t go to sleep and Markus woke up, would Felicia do a really good job of taking care of Markus? No, she wouldn’t. She would be just like you were today, North. So don’t go scolding her about sleeping when she worked so hard today.”

     North stomped out of the room, or Markus thinks she did. Silence followed. “Felicia?” Carl asked.

     “Yes?” Felicia responded a little too quickly and eagerly for Markus’ taste.

     “Can you step outside for a minute?” Carl was polite, yet something in his tone made Markus uneasy.

     “Of course!” Felicia readily agreed. There was some footsteps, then the door opened and closed.

     The room was silent, before Carl spoke up. “All right, Markus. The act is up. I want your report, and if you don’t wake up I will not let you have any steamed corn when you wake up later.”

     Markus couldn’t help it. He had to! Steamed corn was his favorite!

     So Markus obeyed, and opened his eyes to find Carl standing above him, with the whole crossed-arms-and-frown thing. Sheepishly grinning, Markus scratched the back of his head. “Uhh...”

     Carl shushed him. “I knew because you’ve done this as a child, remember?” Markus nodded solemnly. “Now, I want your side of the story. I’ve got everyone else’s, and now I want yours.”

     It was like Markus was waiting for this chance. Speaking quickly, Markus retold his version of the story. Once he ended, Markus hung his head and patiently waited for Carl’s response.

     Carl pondered for a bit, before placing his focus back on Marcus. “Don’t worry, I’ll pretend you woke up later,” Markus lifted his head, his eyes filled with hope. “But I will take away part of your steamed corn for trying to trick me.”

     Markus pouted, but didn’t complain in front of Carl. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t complain at all. Just not in front of Carl.

     Laying back down, Markus pretended to be asleep for another 10 minutes before “waking up”. Felicia had enough rest time by then, and was extra cheerful once Markus stretched and yawned. She did everything she could to make him comfy, and once she was done with that she told him all the juicy gossip. Including some info about this new member.

     After Markus stuffed himself with steamed corn and some carrots, and a cup of water, he asked if there was any new members. Since he was supposed to be clueless about the new member because everyone except Carl thought he was asleep. Felicia was happy to oblige.

     “Oh, there are actually 2 new members. A woman with her child, wandering around in the desert. She was searching for Jericho, and got a stab wound on her arm in the process. Thank god it wasn’t infected! Oh, don’t give me that worried look. Her child was okay, just has a slight fever.”

     “But,” and here Felicia paused. “the child is getting a little worse each day. Oh, I forgot to tell you they got here 2 days ago! You were asleep for, like, 4 days. So... Yeah.”

     Markus gaped. “4 days?! Just because I was lacking sleep for one day, I fell asleep for 4 days?!”

     Felicia, not knowing that it was a rhetorical question, explained hurriedly. “Oh, no! It wasn’t just because you were lacking sleep! The bruises from the carts and the stress also played a factor in it, too!”

     Before Felicia could say more, Markus shushed her. “I want to know about the new members, not what happened to me. Besides, it was a rhetorical question.” Felicia blushed madly, head hanging before pulling herself together, and began talking again in her cheerful self.

     “Well, the woman’s name is Kara. She told us so before she fainted from blood loss. Apparently, Kara was stabbed just the other night, and they had no bandages. Finding this place was a miracle for them. Oh, and the child told us all of this, but she wouldn’t say anything more.”

     Markus was feeling weird and out of place. He wanted to meet this Kara and her child, but he didn’t know what he would say to her. So, he listened in on Felicia’s rambling.

     “... and Kara’s wound was bleeding out a lot, but I patched her right up. She was released from the hospital wing, but she still has to check in every day, just to make sure she wasn’t infected by anything. She talked with Carl, and she was assigned to your group! Isn’t that amazing?!”

     Boredom described how he felt. Well, until he heard that last part. “Wait, what?” Markus questioned. “What do you mean?”

     “Oh! Well, she wanted a safe place for Alice while also contributing to this place, and Carl assigned her to your group, since North was assigned a different line of work.” Felicia recognized that look Markus had on his face at the moment. “Oh, don’t give me that look!”

     Markus frowned, confused. “What look?”

     “The look you have on your face right now! Wait... Oh!” Felicia realized her mistake and tried to fix it. “No, it’s not like that! She’ll still be in your group! She’s just been given a warning not to do it again or she’ll be given to guard duty. But for now, her punishment is cleaning duty. That’s what I meant by a different line of work.

     “Oh, wait! One more thing before my time as your helper is up! Kara will be with you guys until Luther and Sara come back. They could always use an extra hand. Once they come back, Kara will be assigned to them. And North won’t be with your group again until she finishes up her duty! Oh, and Leo wishes you to get released today!”

     And with that, one of the male nurses poked his head in and gestured for Felicia to come out into the hall. “Well, guess it’s time to head over to the child’s room. See ya!” And with that last note, Felicia skipped out of the door and into the hallway.

     One of the doctors stepped in. He was male and held a clipboard with the standard uniform worn by all doctors in the hospital wing. “Sorry to bother you, but I need to run some examinations to see if you can be released, okay?”

     Markus sighed and simply stated, “Let’s get this over with.”

 

 

     So you know Markus’ favorite time of day, right? But what about Connor? What is his favorite time of day?

     Well, he has one, but it is very specific. And it lasts for only a minute. His favorite time of day is 12:36 p.m. Why? Because that is when Sumo wakes up Hank. Every day, without fail.

     How does the dog know it is 12:36? Hank has tried everything. Sleeping pills for Sumo, putting on a muzzle, keeping Sumo in a seperate room, and even keeping Sumo outside. Sumo always somehow manages to wake Hank up at 12:36.

     Which is how it came to be that 12:36 p.m. was Connor’s favorite time of day. Hank would go to sleep around 11 p.m., and they stayed in the same house every night. Connor even managed to create a generator after they visited the power plant.

     Connor loved exploring at night, but he was forbidden to go anywhere near this weird ship that ended up in the desert to Detroit’s east. Apparently too many people lived there for Hank’s liking. They smell weird, too. According to not only Connor’s nose but Sumo’s as well.

     Sunset was near once Connor, Hank, and Sumo arrived at their home. Hank placed himself in the middle of the couch and relaxed, as usual. Sumo tiredly made his way over to his dog bowls, and Connor remained outside as he checked for any signs of weakness in the house’s defense mechanism. Lasers burn any zombies that limp a little too close for comfort now, and it would alert Connor if any humans were around.

     The defense mechanism was functioning as it should be. Connor noticed a little hole in the defense. He would have to watch out for it while he cleaned and cooked. Entering the house, Connor approached the problem of cleaning by knowing what to clean. He entered his mind palace.

      ~~Analyzing...~~

      ~~Analyzing complete.~~

      ~~Cook dinner.~~

~~Set up the table.~~

      ~~Pick up empty bottles.~~

      ~~Activate Roomba.~~

      ~~Clean up table when Hank is done eating.~~

      ~~Wash the dishes.~~

 ~~Fix hole in defense mechanism.~~

     Connor proceeded to follow the instructions he has given himself. Keeping an eye out while cooking was easier than expected. Connor moved his hand automatically while eyeing where the little hole is. Today’s dinner was rice with some fried chicken and chick pea soup.

     “Hank, the food is almost ready!” Checking off the first instruction, Connor eyed the pile of empty bottles. Sighing, Connor walked over to the counter, picked up the bin, and got to work. Sumo watched with his intelligent eyes.

     Connor connected to the Roomba, and it swiveled around, vacuming the carpet. Distracted -because Connor had to manually control the Roomba- he almost didn’t see the alert in the left corner of his eyes. Though he had little time, Connor finally saw it and grabbed Hank and Sumo and created a barrier that could withstand an elephant charging at 70 mph -if they could, anyway- before Hank could utter a word.

     Connor had good timing, because another pickup truck -this time it was red instead of blue- rammed the wall and hit the barrier. The barrier creaked and groaned, but held firm. The truck was thankfully not moving fast enough to go over the trio’s heads, but it did go in the air a moment before settling. The truck’s hood was absolutely demolished.

     Hank peeped his head above the barrier, with Connor and Sumo doing the same. The truck had smoke coming out a few places, and the front was utterly demolished. There were people in the front, and if Connor concentrated hard enough he could see a bag through the tiny back window. That was short-lived, for Connor burst out from behind the barrier and over to the people in the car.

      ~~An olive~~ ~~skinned female is sitting in the passenger seat, clutching her head, standing at 5ft 4in. She has a shirt that had longer sleeves, but was cropped to be around elbow length, and it had a white kitty with its paws in the air and a text bubble was on top saying, “Oops! Did I scare you?” Her pants were yoga pants of all things, but they were loose and easy to move around in. A good choice, but not for fashion.~~

      ~~The other is a dark skinned male with a build that could lift up heavy things. He is huge, standing at around 6ft 7in. He has a regular green shirt with short sleeves and some buttons at the collar. His pants are knee length and he has a buzzcut on the sides of his head, and the middle is not as short as the rest, but isn’t very long, either. He is bleeding on the forehead, left knee, and right hand. He is the one with the most damage.~~

    Connor was brought out of his thoughts when he heard some zombie groans from outside. After fixing the defense system as fast as he could, Connor opened the hole in his hand and a ball of black matter came out. It morphed into the shape of an axe, and then the matter vanished to reveal an actual axe in its place. The handle dropped into Connor’s hand. ~~  
~~

     While Connor was killing off the zombies that got in, Hank was inside searching the bags in the back. He was looking for bandages and hopefully they found some good booze and put it back here. He found bandages, but didn’t have enough for all the wounds. He wrapped some around as many wounds as he could, but the male’s knee was still bleeding. The female was the only one awake, but she might as well have been asleep with how she reacted when Hank bandaged her head.

     “Sumo, keep an eye on these people while I go check on Connor,” Hank ordered. Sumo barked in response and climbed up onto what used to be the hood of the car. Sumo laid down on the metal, watching the people very closely.

     Walking through the hole with a tsk and a mental note to tell Connor to fix it, Hank glanced around. The defense was functioning again, and the last zombie’s head was cut in half. Connor flicked the axe to get all the blood off, and then faced Hank.

     “I got rid of all the zombies. A few were chasing after a truck. It seems as though the tire had exploded when the two were driving away, and the male lost control of the vehicle. I am sorry that your house broke. Do you wish for me to repair it?”

     Hank breathed out a long, deep sigh. “...Get the truck outside first.”

     Connor nodded. “Understood.”

     A good hour later, the truck had been moved outside and Connor created a huge boulder to make it seem like they crashed into the boulder instead of something else, like Hank’s house. Connor took the people out and fixed the bandages, silently judging Hank’s work.

     After the people were taken care of, Connor stuck out his left hand for once, and some strange symbols appeared. They were blue and were made of fire, flashing in and out as they circled Connor’s arm. The same blue fire also circled the rubble and anywhere that had been broken.

     The fire lifted each piece of rubble and the rubble was magically made into the wall again. Each and every thing that was broken or damaged was repaired by the blue fire and back in the place they were in before the crash. Hank let out a low whistle.

     “Damn, I’m never going to get used to that. Whoever that Tsuki person was did a good job with you. Didn’t you say once that while I was trying to repair you, you were repairing yourself and that I was slowing you down?” Hank chuckled at the memory he relived. “I still remember how insulted I was.”

     Connor said nothing, just stared at the wall he rebuilt. The fire circles had disappeared, but Connor still felt them lingering under his synthetic skin, waiting to be called out. “Hey,” A hand rested on his shoulder. “Why are you just staring at the wall?” Hank joked.

     After Connor wouldn’t even glance at him, Hank took a deep breath and tried to turn Connor around. It took awhile, but Connor finally started his respiratory system again. He didn’t need it, but Tsuki wanted him to be as human as possible. She even designed it so that Connor’s lungs, unless Connor shut it down himself, would heat up his breath so that in the cold he would appear to be a regular person. He could even heat up his body to that of a regular human’s temperature.

     Connor supposed she knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Something that would force Connor to look like a regular human being. She was very intelligent and wise to install those systems. He thanked her silently for creating him the way he is, and then turned to face Hank.

     “Sorry for spacing out there. What is the matter?” Connor studied Hank’s face as he spoke. Hank had a look one gives when they don’t believe you, and his posture showed signs of relief.

     “The matter is that I never finished my food.” Hank jutted his thumb over his shoulder to the dining table where, sure enough, his food was all over the table, and the plate broke cleanly in two.

     Connor found himself expressing embarassment on his face. “Sorry, it must have slipped my mind to undo that.” His left arm lit up with the fiery symbols again. Connor raised his left arm and flames encircled the objects on the table. After a minute, Connor lowered his arm. “There.”

     The food was all back in place, and Hank walked over and sat down. He groaned in relief as he put himself at ease. The stove turning on caught his artention as Connor started cooking more rice. “Hey, why are you making more fucking food?” Hank rudely inquired.

     Connor didn’t even spare a glance in Hank’s direction. “For the newcomers, of course.” Water could be heard pouring out of the faucet for once, since the “newcomers” were waking up.

     “Sara! Are you hurt?” The male had gotten up faster than the female, and checked all over before reaching her head. “Your head!”

     The female -now known as Sara- waved his hand away. “I’m okay, Luther, just having a headache right now.” Sara had some minor bruises, but the only major wound was on her head, which she is rubbing at this moment.

     The male now known as Luther at last faced Hank and Connor. “Who are you?!” He moved protectively in front of Sara, pulling out a gun and aiming at Hank. Connor took this moment to raise his hands.

     “Woah!” Hank yelled. “What the fuck are you doing?! We take you in, since you guys were vulnerable to the zombies, and you point a gun at my fucking head?!”

     “Technically he is aiming the gun aproximately 2 and a half centimeters below your left lung, not your head.”

     “Oh, shut the fuck up, Connor!” Connor obliged and kept his mouth shut.

     Sara had pulled out her gun, but kept it lowered at her side. She placed her hand on his arm and shook her head when Luther looked over at her. Luther didn’t listen, though.

     Connor felt the lasers come to life and hacked the cameras posted outside. One of them spotted a muscular zombie with one of the arms shrunken and small bashing the lasers in. Connor disconnected the cameras and shouted at Hank over the noise. “There’s a zombie breaking in!”

     Hank cursed and moved to Sumo, despite Luther training on him. Luther tightened his hold on the gun, when the zombie burst in. Connor ran over to Hank and turned on Sumo’s collar for Hank. The collar whined rather intensely. The zombie shrieked and groaned, shaking its head from one side to the other.

     Connor dashed over to Luther and pulled the pistol out of his grip. He trained the gun on the zombie and fired 3 times. One entered the head between the eyes, one entered the heart, and the other went straight through the head. Blood spurted out of the zombie and it fell to the ground, motionless. Connor placed the gun in Luther’s lax hand and stepped over the zombie to where the defensive fence lay.

     Luther and Sara gaped, pale as ghosts. “What the fuck?” Sara whispered. Hank grinned, pleased at their expressions. After all, Connor was amazing.

     Connor had fixed the fence outside of the others’ view and came back after checking on everything. “Everything is clear, Hank. The zombie snuck through the defense, but he didn’t break anything other than the wall. I apologize for the wall.” Connor looked truly sympathetic.

     Hank sincerely smiled for once. “It’s okay. I’m sure the others can agree that a broken wall is nothing when you saved our lives.” Luther and Sara barely managed to acknowledge that Hank was talking to them and responded accordingly.

     Everyone, except Connor and Sumo, froze as a gun nudged the back of Connor’s head. “You’re coming with me. And no sudden moves, any of you, or this bullet goes through his head.”


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, Tsuki is a main character. And there may be a possible crossover, but I don’t know just yet.

     Connor winced, but remained stoic.

     “Don’t worry, this is a bluff. But if you don’t follow my orders, someone is going to get antsy and then I might go trigger happy. Understand?” a familiar female voice whispered into his ear. He nodded and backed away with her.

     Hank, visibly angry, pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the lady. From where Connor couldn’t fathom. Hank didn’t even have a gun in his belt today. “Let go of him now.” Hank darkly commanded.

     “How about... no?” All of a sudden, darkness encomapassed the entire house. Connor could barely see the outline of anything even with his night vision. His ears began to ring as the female holding him captive shot four times into the darkness. Fears of Hank injured or dead bolted Connor in the same spot, messed up signals from his signals firing off all at once.

     “What the fuck is this?!” Hank’s voice rang out once the gunshots had stopped. The darkness lifted and Connor saw that everyone else had collapsed, and that darts were sticking out from one of their limbs.

     The female voice placed the gun at her side. “I’m just going to need him for awhile, okay? You’ll have him back, hopefully.”

     “Hopefully?!” Hank yelled angrily. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

     Two hands tightened their hold on his shoulders, and Connor felt his feet leave the ground. A scarf was wrapped around his head, and he clung onto his only support for dear life. His feet touched a slope, and these transitions happened so quickly that Connor almost believed that he imagined that he had been in the air. The makeshift blindfold had come off, and he was met with the face of a young girl.

     She had dark hair and bright blue eyes. Her hair fell past her shoulders to the middle of her back, and she was wearing a breathable black dress with one see through green strap on her right shoulder. The girl -more like a lady- looked to be around 18 years old. Every time her hair moved, blue lights fell out of it and would dissipate into the air. Her skin was as pale as the moon, the sunlight seemingly reflecting off of it.

      ~~Pale as the moon...~~ Connor frowned in confusion, before his eyes widened and his mouth gaped. “Is that you...”

     The lady tilted her head to the left and lightly smiled. “Is that a way to treat an old friend, Connor?” Her gun vanished into thin air.

     “No, but threatening to shoot them isn’t a way to treat an old friend either.” Connor smirked as his best friend blushed deeply and hung her head, her hair falling over her shoulders.

     She muttered something quietly, by Connor still heard her. “They were pointing a gun at you. I wanted to make sure you were okay, but I don’t really know how to converse with others...”

     Connor rested his left hand on her shoulder. “Hey.” That caught her attention. “Don’t worry about it. I understand how you must have felt.”

     Her smile was faint and sad. “...Can we talk about what we have missed in each other’s lives? I want to know how you made friends with such a vulgar man.” Connor laughed at that, but quieted once she slammed her hand over his mouth, looking in every direction.

     After she pulled herself together, the two sat down and simply talked about their lives. Or, more specifically, Connor’s life at the moment and in the past. Whenever Connor tried to talk about her life, she would shrug and subtly change the topic.

     “Last question: Do you still have my music box that I gave you?” she asked, feeling slightly scared of what the answer could be.

     “Of course,” Connor gently responded. “Why would I ever give it up?” Her shoulders visibly relaxed, and she looked every bit her actual age, not in her years, but in Nozomu years as she would call it. “Last question for you: Have you made any friends?”

     Her head tilted slightly downwards. “It depends on what I would consider a friend.” And that was all, as they sat in comfortable silence.

     Hank’s cursing reached their ears, and Connor eyed the roof for a way down. The girl giggled, and some dark matter on her back formed to make bat wings. “You should do this sometimes, it is really fun!” she whispered, before taking his hand and gliding to the floor.

     Once they reached the ground, Connor found himself alone in the middle of the road. Sumo turned a corner and ran up to him. “Boof!” Connor smiled and pet Sumo, Sumo obviously enjoying Connor’s petting. Hank came running around the corner.

     “Connor!” Hank called as he ran up to him. Connor, surprised, had no time to react when Hank pulled him in for a hug. “I thought you would never come back. What happened?”

     “Oh, it’s nothing. One of my old friends came by, but she didn’t know how to speak to people. So she did what she did when she saw someone pointing a gun at me. That’s what she said, anyways.” Connor replied, nonchalant. He glanced over his shoulder quickly, without Hank noticing. It was slightly surprising to see her still there, just behind a corner waving before she fled.

     Hank sighed, feeling very old all of a sudden. “Well, don’t do that again, please. It was fucking stressful. Also, why would you put up a barrier in front of us?” Hank whispered the last part.

     “Of course I won’t,” and here Connor also whispered. “I didn’t. She was the one who did, and before you ask no, she isn’t a robot. She is the one who created me.”

     With that last note, Connor made his way over to Sara and the male with her. Sara sighed in relief, while the male’s posture slightly relaxed. “Oh good, you’re safe!” Sara cried, almost running over to give Connor a big hug. The male stopped her.

     “It’s good to see you too, Sara.” Connor walked back over to the stove, sighing at the sight that greeted him. The rice was all burned, and some oil had spilled out and onto the stove itself.

     Getting to work, Connor managed to clean up most of the mess, although he would have to throw the trash out later. Connor had found more rice, and after Hank ate his cold plate of rice while complaining, Connor placed some rice in front of the male and Sara.

     “By the way, my name is Connor. What is your name?” Connor greeted the two.

     Sara was the one to respond after she swallowed the rice in her mouth. “Oh! You already know my name, and my partner over here is Luther.” Luther stayed silent.

     Sara pouted, and lightly punched Luther in the arm. “Don’t be rude to our hosts!” Luther simply sighed and looked the other way, of course eating his rice so as not to be completely rude.

     “...Sorry for pointing my gun at you,” Luther apologized.

     Hank waved dismissively. “Don’t apologize. I understand what the situation must have felt like for you. I would have done the same thing.” After that sentiment, he popped a can of beer open and gulped it down.

     Sara and Luther showed their dislike of him in different ways. Sara cringed and leaned away, while Luther leaned over to Connor and whispered, “Does he always do this? Drinking in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?” Connor nodded.

     Hank threw the can of beer behind him, breathing out deeply. “Well, aren’t you guys leaving? To go somewhere else?”

     Sara glanced over at Luther, and then faced Hank. “Yes, we do have a group and we should be heading back. But I want to bring you guys with us.” Once she ended, all that met her declaration was shocked silence.

     Apparently they already talked about this, since Luther asked, “Are you sure you want to bring them with us?” Sara nodded and beamed at the two sitting across from them.

     “Of course I’m sure. It must be hard to live all by yourselves in a zombie apocalypse.” Her sympathetic look made Connor feel uneasy.

     “Hell no! We are doing perfectly fine without anyone else, so beat it,” Hank said this so heartlessly that Sara was visibly hurt, and tears were welling up in her eyes. Connor was disheartened by her look, so he decided to make a decision of his own.

     “Hank, we should go with them,” Connor argued. “Sure, we are doing fine, but I want to be able to meet more people. I can never do that here. Besides, you know how bad our neighbors are.” Hank couldn’t argue with that, but he still tried.

     “But this is my home! My home where I had a family! I can’t just leave it behind for this mother fuckers!” Hank’s voice started to slur as he downed another bottle.

     “Hank!” Connor spoke forcefully. “I cannot take care of you all by myself. With people all around us trying to take care of you, you cannot just push it all away for the past. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for me!”

     Even Connor’s eyes started to swell at the thought of Hank throwing Connor’s only chance at more friends away for his dead family. Hank, seeing Connor’s enhanced puppy eyes at the max with the tears, could not argue any longer. He sighed. “Why do you actually want to go with them?”

     Connor looked down at his feet. “...To make more friends. My old friend had a hatred towards others and yet she got to make more friends and look out for me. I want to do the same. Please don’t hold me back!” Connor pleaded.

     Hank caved in. How could he not? Connor was making himself vulnerable, showing he has a role model he wants to follow, and why is Hank trying to hold him back? For his dead family. That was it.

     So he found himself sitting in the back with Luther as Sara and Connor were seated in the front laughing. Hank smiled softly for once when he saw Connor’s face. Guess he should’ve paid attention to the living family instead of the dead. Hearing how cheesy that sounded, he hastily downed another bottle of beer.

 

 

     Markus blinked. How long has he been staring up at his cabin’s ceiling? After a long period of apathy, Markus turned over on his right side and stared at the clock. 11:35 p.m.

     Sitting up with a groan, Markus watched the door, wishing for an ounce of motivation. That wish came true in the form of the new member, Kara. Kara knocked politely on the door, waiting outside in the hallway until a “Come in!” was heard. The door opened with a groan, and Kara stepped into the doorway.

     Markus tilted his head in confusion when he found out that Kara was the one knocking. He thought Simon was behind the door. Realizing he was being rude by being silent, Markus asked, “What are you doing here, Kara?”

     Kara stayed silent, then shook her head and mumbled something. Markus leaned forward a little more, placing his right hand behind his ear. Kara, a little embarrassed, mumbled loud enough for Markus to hear. “I’m to be released 5 days later, but I wanted to ask you something. Before anything else happens.”

     Markus gestured for her to continue. “Um...” Kara didn’t know how to start, so she took a deep breath and at last inquired, “Is Luther... a tall, dark-skinned male?”

     Markus was surprised. “...Yeah. Why do you ask?”

     Kara looked away, embarrassed. “Because...” She trailed off. “I don’t wish to talk about it. Not until Luther comes back.”

     “By the way, when is he supposed to come back?” This was the question Markus had been dreading ever since she started talking about Luther. Knowing that she probably had a shared past with him made it even worse to tell her.

     “About that... Luther was supposed to come back 4 hours ago. Before sundown. He left at sunrise, so it shouldn’t have been a problem. If he didn’t come back before sunrise, then...” He trailed off, but Kara understood.

     She backed away from the room, then fell to the floor. Her eyes started to well up with tears, and she sobbed quietly on the floor. Markus ran over to her and pulled her into the room. After shutting the door so someone like North wouldn’t see Kara crying, he sat down beside her on the floow and tried to soothe her.

     Wiping away her tears, Kara got up and mumbled about someone called Alice. She left not a moment later. Markus felt even worse now that he knew she didn’t feel better around him. He felt like he was a failure, since he couldn’t make Kara feel better. But she was very close to Luther, so she wouldn’t have felt better just by a few soothing words, right?

     Markus slipped underneath his sheets, too drained from Kara’s hysteria that he fell asleep rather quickly. Apparently trying to calm someone down takes a lot out of you. He dreamed of nothing.

     Rapid knocking on his door was what woke Markus up. Quickly glancing over to his clock, he sloppily opened the door. “It’s 12:54 a.m. What... Kara? Is that you?” It was dark and she was just a silhouette, but it was definitely Kara’s face in front of him.

     She jumped in circles, clapping her hands and giggling. “Come on! Luther’s here! Luther came back, along with some others! Come on!” She tugged at Markus’ hand, and then fell to the ground when she accidently let go.

     Markus held out his hand and she took, mumbling about how he was taking too long and jogged to the other end of the hallway. Markus sighed and followed Kara through the hallways, inwardly excited and relieved that Luther didn’t seem to be hurt, based off of Kara’s excitement.

     When they got to the hold, Markus didn’t recognize two of the people that were there. Luther and Sara were both there, injured but okay. Talking took too much out of Luther, but Sara was rambling. The other two there were kind of quiet and reserved, disconnecting themselves from the rest of the people that were talking to Sara.

     Kara and Markus split ways here. Obviously Kara went straight for Luther, while Markus headed to the two -now that Markus looked closely they had a dog, too- just lingering in the back. The one with a beanie nudged the other when he noticed Markus.

     Markus atopped when he recognized one of them. The one wearing a beanie was the same as the one that dodged the truck. Recognizing the robot but not really knowing the robot is a robot, Markus strode on over with a new purpose.

     “Hi! My name is Markus. What is yours?” Markus greeted.

     The old man glared and stayed silent, so the one wearing the beanie stepped forward. “Hi! My name is Connor, and he is Hank. And the dog is Sumo,” he scratched Sumo’s ear as he said this. “Don’t mind Hank, he is always like this.”

     Ignoring the small “Hey!” from Hank, Markus asked, “Are you the one who dodged the truck that was being chased by a giant zombie?”

     Connor studied Markus’ face for a moment, and then his eyes widened. “You’re the guy that was in the back of the truck! The one getting hit by a lot of crates.” Markus cringed internally when he heard what his first impression with Connor was. I mean, would you want your first impression with someone be that you were getting hit by a bunch of crates?

     Don’t answer that question.

     “Yeah, but I healed nicely,” Markus dismissively responded. “Hey, why are you guys here?”

     “To sign up or whatever, you dumbass,” the one named Hank rudely interrupted. Connor sighed and gestured for Markus to wait a second, and then faced Hank.

     “Hank, why did I want to come here?”

     “To make friends or whatever?”

     “Exactly. And are you helping me?”

     “...No.”

     “So unless you are trying to make new friends or if it’s an emergency, don’t interrupt my conversations.” Then Connor was finished and faced Markus again, looking sympathetic. “Sorry you had to see that side of Hank.”

     “No, it’s okay,” Markus intergected before Connor could apologize more. “I just wanted to make sure you were getting ‘signed up or whatever’.” Hank frowned at this, but he said nothing. Well, maybe he did complain to Sumo, but obviously he didn’t interrupt again.

     “So where do we sign up?” Connor tilted his head to the side. Markus would’ve laughed if Connor didn’t look so serious.

     “...Are you serious?”

     “Of course,” Connor frowned a little. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

     “Oh, well all you need to do is talk to Carl.” Then Markus added in a hurry, “But do it when it’s daylight. Carl is sleeping right now.”

     Hank furrowed his eyebrows, muttered something under his breath, and then widened. “Wait, are you... Holy shit, it is you!”

     Markus raised an eyebrow, confused. “What are you talking about now, Hank?”

     Hank paused, collected his thoughts, and turned to Markus. “Do you remember, when you were younger, how you had a friend to play with after school?”

     Taking a moment to recall, Markus quickly ran through all his childhood memory and opened his eyes in shock. “Wait, is it really you? Oh, god! It seems like forever ago!”

     Connor tilted his head in confusion. “I am sorry, but I do not understand. Do you know him, Hank?”

     Hank nodded enthusiastically, ignoring the simultaneous cringe from both Connor and Markus as he drank another bottle. “Yup!” Hank answered after he finished. “My son used to be his playmate! He was way younger, though, so it was hard to recognize him.”

     Markus agreed with Hank. “It was hard to recognize you, since you’re so much older now, but it is always nice to see you.” Markus took a moment to think before he got all excited. “Hey, you should go see Carl!”

     Eyes widening slightly, Hank inquired, “Where is Carl? Is he really still alive after all that happened?”

     Markus frowned a little. “Of course he would be. Why wouldn’t he?”

     “Oh, right. Carl was always the weakest and the slowest in our classes. Most of us would call him names, and I was no different. But we are friends, and I would sure be glad to see him. So where is he?”

     Having forgot Hank asked that question, Markus started. “Oh, right,” Markus sheepishly admitted that he forgot. “He is... What am I saying? I’ll just show you where he is.”

     Gesturing for Connor and Hank to follow him, Markus left the hold and walked down several hallways, up and down a few steps, and evengot turned around sometimes, before stopping in front of a door like every other in the ship. “Come in!” could be heard after Markus knocked on the door. Markus opened the door for the two, and closed it after them.

     Carl made a face of surprise, before letting out a little chuckle and getting up from his chair to meet the newcomers. “It’s great to see you, Hank.”

     Hank shook his hand, repeating what Carl had just said. Chairs were quickly taken out and positioned in front of the desk so Connor and Hank would sit in front of Carl, with Markus at one of the sides. Carl sat down properly, while Hank just plopped onto the chair, with Connor seating himself with the utmost grace. Everyone waited for Hank to speak up.

     “Well,” Hank began. “I never imagined that you would be the leader of such a big group. But here we are, you the leader and me with...” Hank paused, the. continued as if nothing happened. “...some strange things happening.”

     Carl nodded. He looked straight at Connor and squinted at him. Then he jolted back as if burned. “Oh my god! It really is you! Connor, do you remember me?”

     “Hold on.” Connor searched his memory base for any sign of a Carl, and then nodded vigorously. “Yeah, I do! It’s you!”

     Markus was very confused by this conversation. “Um, what’s going on?” Markus went either ignored or unheard.

     “Let’s see... Oh yes, you look exactly the same! Tell me, do you recall Markus as a young child?”

     “...Yes, Carl. I do remember Markus, but he was so young and small. Is his brother still around?”

     Carl widened his eyes at the mention of Markus’ brother. “Oh yeah! Markus!” Markus stood just a little straighter when he was called. “Come on over and talk to Connor here while I go and call Leo.”

     Markus and Connor stood awkwardly while Carl goes to find Leo and Hank sits in his chair drinking. “So... Hi.” Markus tries to start the conversation.

     Connor senses Markus’ uneasiness and starts up the conversation without somehow being awkward. The perks of being a machine. “You were very happy as a child.”

     Markus nods. Then Markus gains an idea. “Hey...” Connor listens politely. “Since I don’t remember you, can you tell me what you were like as a kid?”

     Immediately Markus knows he hit a sore spot as Connor looks at his feet in silence. Hank doesn’t really care at this point and continues to drink. Marlus sees Connor petting Sumo -who until this point had been in the back, staying quiet and sleeping half the time, but then he got up to get some of Connor’s petting skills again- he got another idea. This time it was a better idea.

     “How long had Sumo been with you guys?” Connor’s eyes finally looked away from his feet. His eyes showed that he understood why Markus said this and was happy to diverge from the previous question.

     “Sumo has been with us for a long time. He was a puppy when I first arrived at Hank’s doorstep.” Seeing Markus’ confusion, Connor explains that he was adopted in the way that wouldn’t cause Maekus to know he was a robot. “I was adopted after I collapsed in his backyard.”

     A crash outside was heard before Markus could say anything about it. Sumo barked a lot and pawed at the door. Connor opened it and Sumo ran out to the hallway barking at whoever was there. Markus peeped his head out the doorway to his left to see that Felicia was there trying to calm Sumo down.

     Markus struggled to keep Sumo from biting her, he was that angry. Connor reached down and easily kept Sumo away, much to Markus’ surprise. Shaking his head, he stepped out into the hallway and asked what had happened.

     Felicia had a look of terror, though it seemed... off, somehow. Even though she seemed off, she still had a tremor in her voice as she retold what had happened. “A zombie broke in, and it had gigantic feet with a hole in the right side of its chest and the head. Not only that, but it is leading a huge horde of zombies.”


	6. Chapter 5

     Connor looked down the hallway to see Markus booking it to the hold. After analyzing the area to get a map, and placing the lady that had just fainted into the room, he ran for the hold as well. Well, after he dragged Hank and Sumo with him as well.

     The hold was very different. Tables had been moved to barricade the door, and people were trying to fix some small holes in the wall while staying away from the zombies. Gunshots rang out once or twice, but nobody really brought out their guns. Even the ones with multiple guns didn’t pull out a single one.

     He heard Markus talking to the orange haired female from earlier. Connor’s audio processors picked up the conversation and he listened in. The female sounded very angry as she spoke.

     “Don’t you understand what kind of fucking situation we’re in?” That was the female, with vulgar language. “This isn’t about having to save ammo! These zombies aren’t dying!”

     “Well, maybe if you shot at them they would! If this isn’t about saving ammo, then why aren’t we shooting at them?” This one was Markus.

     “Well, if the zombies would die then we would shoot at them! But these zombies come back up after we shoot them! Every time they die they come back to life! Like the fucking Bigfoot outside!”

      ~~Wait, what? The zombies won’t die? But... that’s impossible, right? But the female would have no reason to lie to Markus in this situation, so it must be possible. But why won’t they die?~~

     Markus stayed silent for a while. The female took this moment to rest her voice and stood silently. Connor could feel the shock radiating from Markus.

     “...What?” was all Markus could manage to get out. “What do you mean? North, you better not be fucking with me!”

     The female now named North scoffed. “Why would I be fucking with you when our people could die? Heck, they’re dying out there right now! So don’t think I’m fucking with you!”

     Connor tuned out the angry voices of Markus and North and noticed a little child on the floor, curling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around it. Sobs emanated from the child. Cole popped up out of nowhere from Connor’s memories. Feeling a need to comfort the crying child, Connor calmly walked over to her and sat in front of her.

     The crying child lifted her head from her knees and locked eyes with Connor. They just stared and Connor lifted his left hand up and waved. She did the same. They stayed like this for a while and the child smiled a little bit.

     “Alice!” was called out from behind Connor, so he stood up and turned around to meet who called out. A female eyed everyone, calling out the same name again. The child stood up quickly.

     Recognition flared up in her eyes and the little child called out, “Kara!” The female instantly found the source of her name and gratefully smiled. She ran out to Alice and the child did the same. They met with a warm hug and laughter.

     Connor ducked out of there. He felt uncomfortable with knowing that he could never have that same kind of feeling. He was a robot. They weren’t supposed to have feelings. He just simulated them.

     Playing around with these kinds of thoughts often led to Connor feeling like he shouldn’t have emotions and that he was a faker. When this happened, Connor would place his hand on the left side of his chest and listen to what song was playing from the music box. After playing through this scenario once more during such a crises Connor smiled at the song that was playing. It was called “Headphones”, and it was heartwarming.

     A crash and screams brought Connor out of his thoughts and allowed him to examine the strange creature. He realized that it was the same big-footed creature that he saw earlier in the park. Some new holes were found on the zombie, and some of them should have been fatal. But the creature was still standing, and some mediocre zombies streamed in from the new hole.

     Connor entered his mind palace, temporarily freezing time for him and allowing him to think.  ~~Should I use the dark matter? Hank said not to use it in front of people, but this is an emergency. So what kind of weapon should I use? Hmm...~~

     He exited his mind palace and hid his right hand from view. After creating a stereotypical laser gun, Connor fired it at the mediocre zombie in front of him. At first a regular bullet shot out of Connor’s gun, entering and exiting the creature’s skull. Then the zombie stopped, and then he started to disintegrate from the newly made wound.

     Noting the results of this weapon in his own little weapon’s catagory, he fired several more times, each time resulting in the same demise. Headshots followed by disintegration. Connor eyed the hole with worry. Even if he did get rid of all the undead as soon as he reached the hole, there would still be a hole. How would he fix the hole without anyone noticing that he is a robot?

     That answer would have to wait as the large zombie lumbered over to the panicking crowd of people scrambling to get out. Even if everybody had already made it out there was no way they could outrun the zombie. Without thinking on it much, Connor shot the legs first, and then placed a few rounds in its chest and head. Since it was way bigger, it would need more time to fully disintegrate.

     Also noting this mentally, Connor watched the zombie disintegrate.

     “Boof!” Connor turned to face where Sumo was standing. He was, once again, attempting to bite the one that had fainted outside the door. She surprisingly was agile, gracefully dodging every attempt at harming her.

     Connor was conflicted. Sumo could tell if someone was nice or not, and he obviously didn’t think highly of this lady. But she is also part of Jericho, and his teammate. He couldn’t turn on her.

     She did act really weird, though. Her body language spoke of a talented liar, and she obviously is agile. Heck, she obviously wasn’t out very long, if she made it here in time to fight. The way Markus spoke to her, however, tells a different story. He thought of her as weak and fragile when he spoke to her, and he didn’t seem to see through her act.

     Connor decided that Sumo was right and that this lady was actually a fake. Why, he could not fathom. So he grabbed a pistol lying on the floor, and trained it on her. He couldn’t bring himself to kill her, so he waited until she could dodge no longer and pulled the trigger. He hit his target.

     The woman crumpled to the floor, clutching her leg and yelling out in pain. Sumo barked and snarled, but deemed her as no longer a threat and moved on. She panted as she applied pressure on her leg, like she has done this countless times before. This fueled Connor’s suspicions even further.

     But she would have to wait. Right now there were zombies to disintegrate. After setting down the pistol, he raised his disintegrating gun and swiftly entered the fray. He scanned the entire room. There were 5 zombies in front of him, 10 to his right, and 9 to his left.

     Firing 7 shots in succession, mowing down all the zombies in front of him and one on his left and right. The zombies groaned and moaned as they lumbered around, all heading towards the door behind Connor. Gunshots echoed from Connor’s left, and once Connor had the chance to see the source, he saw the orange haired female from earlier. The one talking to Markus.

     She cursed as she fired more shots. Scanning her stress levels, he calculated that even if the zombies died from a regular bullet, she would have less than 18% of a chance at making a lethal shot. Knowing that she didn’t have a gun that could kill these zombies, he shot them down for her.

     “Wait, don’t- What?” was her reaction when Connor pulled the trigger for her. All of the shots were obviously headshots, and all the zombies disintegrated. He slid his gun into the jacket’s inner pocket, and then faced the female he saved.

     “Are you alright? Are you hurt?” These were some of the questions Connor asked. The female gawked for a moment, then pulled herself together and scowled at Connor. 

     “I could do that myself, you know,” she muttered softly. Connor obviously picked up what she said and answered her for no reason. (The downfalls of being a machine, well, sometimes.)

     “You had no chance of killing these types of zombies, mostly because your weapon is not suited for killing them,” Connor stated, pointing to her gun as he spoke. “So I helped you out.”

     “My gun is rather useless against them... Wait,” she paused, then lashes out in anger. “What do you mean mostly?!”

     Connor said nothing, because he didn’t trust himself to be able to speak without making her suspicious. So he stayed quiet and listened to her words. And took her punches.

     She scoffed and nodded. “I thought so! Well, we’ll talk more on that later. What I want to talk about right now is that gun you have right there.”

     Connor winced and pondered on what he should do. Entering his mind palace, he thought and thought on what he should say. A perk of being Connor, you can think on what you want to say for as long as you want and not looking weird as long as you enter the mind palace.

      ~~What should I tell her? Maybe I could tell her that I made it? No, that wouldn’t work. Or maybe I could tell her that an old friend made it for me, since technically she made the tech that made the gun. So she did make the gun in a indirect way.~~

     Connor exited his mind palace and answered, “An old friend made this gun for me. She only made one, though. Also, she is the only one that can make the bullets for these things, so I have to use it sparingly. Today was an exception.”

     Thankfully, the orange haired lady didn’t press it. She just nodded skeptically and moved on. “So...” The lady laced her hands in front of her, obviously awkward by the way her feet are shuffling. “My name is North. What’s yours?”

     “Oh!” Connor mentally smacked himself in the head for forgetting to introduce himself. “My name is Connor. I just got here. Nice to make your acquaintance.”

     Sticking out his hand was received with North’s hand meeting his. Connor was sticking out his left hand, and North had to stick out her left hand as well to perform the handshake. The awkward way she presented her hand gave Connor the knowledge of knowing that she is right-handed.

     “Connor!” The familiar voice of Hank called out. “Where the fuck have you been?” Releasing his new acquaintance’s hand, Connor shifted his body to turn 180 degrees, where he could see Hank stumbling over with Sumo at his feet. Connor winced when he noticed the way Hank had slurred his words, drunk by the sound of it.

     Connor looked past Hank to see people rounding up the zombies by trapping them in nets. Before Connor turned away, he caught the little girl named Alice staring at him. She waved and he held a small smile.

     Hank finally made it in front of the ever patient Connor, with Sumo undetetected by almost all. Connor, ever diligent, asked, “Hank, what is the matter? Can you not see I am making a new friend?”

     Hank leaned over to his left and looked past Connor’s shoulder to see North crossing her arms in her own moody way. “Yeah, making _friends_.” He put great emphasis on ‘friends’, which caused North to scowl further.

     “Anyways, I got ourselves a nice room. It even has air conditioning!” Hank swayed every now and then, but was coherent enough to be able to keep up with what he was saying previously. Connor calculated that Hank probably had about 4 to 5 bottles today.

     “Really?” Connor responded. “Where is this room you are talking about? May I check it out to see if you hid any alcohol in there?”

     North’s face morphed into one of surprise. “Wait,” she interjected. “He gets drunk during the apocalypse? And you guys still managed to fucking survive?”

     Hank’s eyes lightened up and he stepped up to North. “Oh yeah?” Hank challenged. “What about you?”

     “What about me?” North dared.

     “Connor had to come save your fucking ass. I’m the one that saved his life!” Connor opened his mouth, but Hank beat him to it. “Shut it! Not a word from you!”

     “Hmm? Is Connor the reason why you’re still alive? ‘Cause it looks to me like you’re about to fall over and croak!” North taunted. Hank’s face reddened.

     “You really want to go there?! Because I will fucking tell you that I am way smarter than you’ll ever be!”

     North clenched her fists and softly threatened, “I will beat the fucking life right out of you!”

     “I would like to see you try!”

     Just as North raised her fists, Markus cut right in. “That’s enough!” Markus commanded. North lowered her arms, glowering at Hank’s smug grin.

     “No more fighting! Understand?” Markus stared Hank and North down, until they finally replied with a “Yes.”

     “Both of you, come with me.” After reading Hank’s questionable gaze, Markus explained. “You both are getting punishments for goading each other into a fight.”

     Hank sputtered. “W-What?! Fuck you! I ain’t doing nothing!”

     Connor put in his own words for once. “Hank, the negatives contradict each other. So you are actually saying you want to do something.”

     Markus smothered any protest from Hank with a challenging glare. Even North quieted when Markus gave that stare. “Any other complaints?” Markus asked, silently daring someone to contradict his ruling. No one volunteered.

     “Good. Connor is free to go, so why don’t you check out your room?” It was more of a demand than anything else. Connor nodded and called to Sumo, who replied with a bark and trotted after Connor.

     “Now then, what should be your punishment?”

     Connor’s faint voice could be heard yelling, “Ban Hank from any alcoholic beverages!”

     Hank cursed Connor when he saw Markus’ devilish grin.


	7. Chapter 6

     As Markus took away all of Hank’s bottles, his thoughts traveled back to Connor. Thought about how he was so scared. Scared that everyone might die since the zombies won’t die.

     Just thinking back on that made him shiver. Right before he led them over to the punishment sector, Markus stopped in front of North. Her face was turned away from him.

     Markus thought a while on what he should say, and then he mentally smirked. “Why were you talking to the new member when there were still zombies on the loose?” taunted Markus. “Aren’t these your people? You were so hyped up on saving them as well.”

     North’s eyes contained such fury and rage that Markus backed up a step. Her voice quieted. “You don’t want to know what I have done to those who have angered me.”

     Markus felt a shiver down his spine as he heard that. North was really creepy when she wanted to be. “Well, all I want to know is why you stopped to talk to him when you could’ve been helping me! I almost got bitten twice!”

     She turned her head away and stayed silent. “It’s because you didn’t see what type of weapon the newb had. It was incredible!” For a moment, anyway.

     Markus raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he questioned.

     Hesitation was a word North did not know. She huffed and answered with a “Obviously.” Then she was quiet.

     Standing still for just a moment, Markus then turned around and walked forward with a “Follow me.” Everyone in the trio walked in silence.

     Markus walked straight up to the male leaning on the counter, with his arm holding his head up, that had a sign hanging above it saying “Punishment Sector”.

     The man slowly straightened himself when he saw Markus stopping in front of the counter. “Can I help you?” the man asked with a lazy tone.

     “Obviously. Why else would we be here?” North spoke before Markus could. Silencing North with another glare, he shook his head and turned back to the male behind the counter.

     “Well? What kind of thing did they do?” asked the bored man.

     “These two were yelling and insulting each other, and she was about to turn it into a fist fight before I jumped in. Can you say what the punishment is for her? I’ll deal with the old man.” The reason Markus referred to the other two like that was because he was still kinda pissed at them for starting a fight in the first place.

     The man behind the counter wrote down some things on a clipboard he pulled out. After flipping through a hand written book, he set it down with a sigh.

     “The- Is that North? Didn’t think you’d want to fight this old man over here.” The man taunted with a smirk.

     North looked away, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Shut up!”

     The man chuckled and resumed business. “Well, North has pipe cleaning duty for getting into trouble again. The old man isn’t to get punished by the book, right? So it’s not my place to say what to do with him.”

     Markus smiled. “Thanks, David.”

     David just sighed and flopped onto the counter. Markus sighed and faced the two behind him. Hank was getting a little more sober now that he didn’t have any beer, and North was pissed off. She was the first to step up and start complaining.

     “What the fuck was that for?! Why am I the only one to get punished by David while he gets to kick back and fucking relax?! I am not going to clean up someone’s shit from the pipes!” Those were some of the remarks that got past her mouth.

     Hank, meanwhile, was angrily mumbling about Connor. When he noticed Markus watching him, his scowl deepened and he muttered, “What the fuck are you looking at? Huh?”

     Markus chose to answer Hank with a question of his own. “How did you come to adopt Connor?” Markus curiously asked.

     Hank frowned, making it very obvious that he was thinking about how to answer. “Well... Connor collapsed in our backyard, and I helped him get better. Unfortunately, he does not really remember his life before I took him in.”

     Sympathy made its way onto Markus’ face. “I’m...”

     Hank waved off whatever Markus was going to say. “Jesus fucking christ, don’t be so sappy! Connor is fucking okay now, and he even lectures me to eat healthy! So don’t fucking worry.”

     Even though he knew that Hank was trying to comfort him, it made Markus feel like there was something Hank was trying to hide. But Markus trusted that Hank knew what he was doing and didn’t push any further. At this point, North had chosen to cling to Markus and shake him, affectively ending the conversation.

     “Hey! North!” whined Markus. Hank walked off, most likely in search of either beer, Connor and Sumo, or both. Probably beer. Markus would have to tell everyone not to give Hank beer.

     He never suspected that North was shaking him for another plan. She pulled hard enough for him to fall over, and then ran for it. It would’ve been a great plan if Carl didn’t walk around the corner at that moment.

     Markus stood up in record time and practically tackled North to the ground as she slowed down to be polite to Carl. After all, you just can’t be that mean to a man like Carl. Leo walked around the corner right behind him and snickered when he saw Markus on top of North.

     “Man,” Leo laughed as he said this, “you must have been pretty mad at her to tackle North to the ground.” Then Leo bent down to look at North more closely. “What did you do to make him so angry?”

     North growled at him and managed to get out “Leave me the fuck alone!” before Markus lifted her off the ground and dragged her away. Leo almost fell over laughing at how North began kicking and punching every direction. That just made her more furious.

     Markus never felt more relieved to see the punishment sector and pushed her inside. Slamming the door, he felt North ram the door and curse the day he was born, then there was silence as the management in the punishment sector dragged her away to the pipes. It seems cruel, yes. But how else is punishment going to get to the right people, and how else to actually get people to take their punishment? It even makes people second guess what they are doing in order to stay out of there.

     With that taken care of, Markus could finally talk to Connor about the gun that was supposedly amazing. And maybe convince him to play something, like a video game. Or maybe a board game, or sports. Something, anyways.

     Ideas in mind, Markus walked down the hallway in search of Connor. A good half hour passes, with Markus feeling like he would never find Connor. Markus finally had given up, and walked back over to the hold.

     Or he would have, if Sumo hadn’t barked at that exact moment. Markus grinned. Then he looked for the source of it. The sound of thumping greeted his ears, along with a creaking of a bed every now and then, and he turned the knob. Then he pushed the door open.


	8. Chapter 7

     Connor jogged with Sumo over to their new room. The ship was like a maze, but he already had a map, so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. The problem, however, was that Hank never told him where the new room was. Thankfully, someone saw Hank exit a room expressing his enthusiasm of finding a room in his own way, and told Connor so when he asked.

     He opened the door, and closed the door behind him after Sumo barged right in. Connor flopped onto the bed, mentally exhausted after everything he had been through ever since the outbreak began. It was 2039, and the outbreak had occurred some time ago. Sumo chased his tail for a bit, before laying down on his belly and falling asleep.

     Minutes had passed with Connor switching from just laying on the bed to flicking a coin between his fingers. Boredom had sunk in the moment Connor had entered. Knocks on the door changed all of that. For a moment, anyway.

     Connor called, “Come on in!” As the door started to open, Connor pondered on who it could be. Hank would’ve barged in without hesitation, but this person didn’t. Could it be Markus, or maybe the child he met earlier, or maybe even Sara and Luther?

     A woman stepped into the room. She wore a long sleeved dress shirt that mixed the hues of winter in them. Worn pants were the color of a deep blue, and Connor recognized her as the lady calling out for the child named Alice. Said child peeped her head from the left side of the doorframe, smiling when her eyes landed on Connor.

     “Yay!” she exclaimed with joy. The lady -Kara, now that he actually thought back on it- scolded her child lightly, but Alice didn’t notice. She jumped onto the bed, keeping her legs over the edge so she could swing them. Her smile was contagious, and Connor found himself smiling lightly.

     Kara cleared her throat, being proper as best she could. “Hi! My name is Kara, and this is Alice.” Connor introduced himself as well.

     “My name is Connor. Nice to meet you two.” Alice watched her feet swing, while Kara politely said “Nice to meet you.” back. “What brings you two here?”

     Kara opened her mouth to speak, but Alice had other plans. “Oh! We came here because I wanted to see you again!” Happily content with her answer, she continued her swinging while quietly beckoning Sumo over to her. Shaking her head, Kara stepped back from Sumo, finally seeing him for the first time.

     “I didn’t know that dogs were still around!” Kara took shaky steps away from Sumo, backing up to the wall. Connor obviously saw how aprehensive she was and tried to get her to relax.

     “Don’t worry, Sumo doesn’t bite! In fact, he is one of the lousiest guard dogs I have ever known!” Kara chuckled nervously, taking a few steps forward but otherwise still just as scared around Sumo as she was before.

     Alice explained, “It’s because Kara has had terrible allergies as a kid, and is afraid that - was it Sumo? That Sumo would trigger her allergies if she got too close.” A noise of comprehension left Connor’s throat. Playing along with Alice, he answered her questions about him. The questions were about his favorites, so he didn’t have to worry too much there.

     He also managed to sneak in his own questions before Alice would come up with more to pummel him with. “What was your family like before the outbreak?” and “How old are you?” were the only two he got in. Her answers were very brief.

     “Oh, my mom and dad were happy together. I was there to make it more happy! And then my dad got seperated from us after a landslide fell in between us. I hope daddy is safe!” That was her answer to the first one.

     Her next answer was just the number 9, and then she made up another question to throw his way. Kara was silently judging from the background, and Sumo just slept. Somehow, Alice lost herself in her thoughts and the room filled with silence for a moment.

     Sumo woke up abruptly and barked after light footsteps walked by our door. Whoever was behind the door was apparently scared off, and Alice scolded Sumo before making it her mission to see how high she could jump. Kara seemed worried, but all she did was move in a position where she could save Alice from a nasty fall if she tripped.

     Dull thumping was all that filled the silence along with a few giggles here and there. Sumo hopped onto the bed, and made a creaking noise every now and then. The silence wasn’t awkward, but rather comforting.

     The door opened suddenly, and Alice jumped while twisting her body to see who it was. Connor calculated that when she landed on the bed again, she had a 67% chance of tripping and falling. So instead he bounced up to his feet and caught her just as she landed and started to trip.

     Kara had tensed, ready to catch Alice, and then sighed in relief when Connor had managed to catch her just in time. Then she faced whoever was at the door to see that it was Markus standing awkwardly in the doorway. She smiled and politely invited him in.

     Markus thanked her and closed the door behind him. All Markus got to do was walk up closer to Connor when the door opened and hit the wall with a bang, with Hank barging in without a knock or greeting. Hank eyed everyone in the room and started with a “What the-?!” before Connor cut him off by pointing at Alice, Kara crossing her arms with a silent threat.

     Hank cleared his throat and restated his statement if it had been completed, but with more kid-friendly language. “What is going on? Is there a party that I was not aware of?”

     Alice bounced off the bed and jovially skipped over to Hank. “I’m sorry for intruding upon your room, but Connor helped me feel better and I wanted to be friends! Please don’t be mad.” Alice made her best puppy dog eyes.

     Sighing when he saw Connor’s own puppy dog eyes, Hank muttered, “It’s okay. Just a little warning next time, okay?” Alice agreed cheerfully and waved goodbye to Connor. Kara placed her right hand in Alice’s left hand and walked out wuth a goodbye wave and added “Thanks, Connor!” before leaving.

     Connor waved back, and then positioned himself in a certain way so he could lay down and pet Sumo at the same time. The other two watched Sumo wag his tail happily, before Hank got to business. “What do you want?”

     Markus answered, “I came to talk to Connor, but then you showed up and I didn’t want to interrupt.” Hank scoffed, and sort of stumbled over to his makeshift workplace. Warily steering himself to the bed, Markus stopped in front of Sumo and stood there.

     Connor asked, “What did you want to say?” He patted Sumo on the head before sitting up and listening to what Markus had to say.

     Markus sat down on the other side of the bed and inquired, “North said that you had an awesome gun that could take out the undead. Could you show it to me and tell me how it works?” Connor froze at the first sentence.

     Hank was frozen as well. He slowly spun his rotating chair around, and then darkly glared at Connor. “What the hell did you do?” Hank asked in a slow, low voice. Connor gulped, one of his ticks that he had, and kept his gaze from reaching Hank’s face.

     “Well, I might have used my old friend’s little gift and borrowed a gun from her gift.” Hank stood up so fast he looked like he just glitched.

     “Did anyone see?!”

     “No! I was careful!” Markus gazed quizzically at the two.

     “What are you guys talking about?” Both stilled as they had temporarily forgot Markus was there. Connor reacted faster than Hank and got an answer out first, since he has the mind palace to think things through.

     “Oh! Umm...” Connor didn’t really know what to say to get Markus off of his back, so he said something very close to the truth but not quite there. “Well, one of my only friends before all of this had this uncanny gift to be able to create wonderful and amazing things, so she created the gun that I borrowed from her. But the process is somewhat strange, and I am not allowed to show anyone the process of how to borrow from her because then they can replicate it and then steal stuff from her.”

     Markus blinked. “Oh.” Hank also blinked and relaxed a little, mostly out of shock.

     Sighs came from Markus’ mouth left and right today. “Well, I am going on over to the medical bay. A nurse stopped me and told me that Felicia wanted to see me in the medical bay, so that’s where I am headed.”

     Connor felt ashamed and guilty, knowing the reason why she is in the medical bay was because of him. “Of course, I understand. May I come with you? Maybe I can be of use there.” Connor’s eyes lit up at the thought of being able to help Jericho.

     Markus didn’t know how to say no, so he agreed. Hank couldn’t care less, as long as Connor stayed safe. And Sumo fell asleep again, wanting to rest for a while.

     Markus opened the door and gestured to Connor to go through first. Connor opened up the map just in case he got seperated from Markus, and after Markus shut the door they left to go see Felicia. With Hank at his work desk starting to draw some sort of diagram before getting up and practically sprinting to the bathroom closest to the room.


	9. Chapter 8

     As soon as Connor and Markus left the room, Hank started banging his head into the desk. “Stupid withdrawal! Shitty android!” Hank yelled, opting to say just that as he was obviously going through a nasty withdrawal. Then he got up and held his hands over his mouth as he searched for a bathroom to throw up in.

     Connor and Markus could faintly hear Hank yelling out something about androids, and Connor would’ve sweated if he could sweat. Markus quizzically looked back in the direction of the room Hank was in, and asked, “What is an android?”

     Connor simply shrugged his shoulders, remembering that he was the only android on this planet. “I have no idea what Hank yells out when he is sober, but most of the time it probably isn’t something nice and friendly.” Markus understood that.

     “I’m getting slightly hungry. What about you, Connor?” His heterochromatic eyes landed on Connor, awaiting an answer.

     Connor entered his mind palace, freezing time so he could think.  ~~What should I say? I can’t say that I am hungry, because I’m not. But if I say I’m not hungry, it might cause Markus to ask why? You know what, I’m just going to say the truth!~~

     Leaving his mind palace, Connor said, “I don’t eat often, because my body doesn’t allow that much food. So I’m not hungry.” What he said was the truth. He sometimes ate, to avoid suspicion, but his body can’t get rid of a lot of food. So he doesn’t eat much.

     Markus’ face formed one of worry. “Are you sure you’re healthy? Maybe you should have a doctor check up on you.”

     Connor hurriedly replied, “No!” Markus flinched, and Connor cleared his throat. “I’d rather not.” Markus nodded slowly, opting not to say anything.

     Not a moment too soon, the two arrived at the medical bay. Nurses and volunteers scurried about, with a few doctors here and there, and yells of pain rushed through the hallways every once in a while, but otherwise it was silent. Connor never felt at ease any time he was near here. Thankfully he never had to be here, but he still had shivers up his robotic spine every time he thought about a hospital.

     Markus didn’t know that, of course, and kept walking without stopping, and the hesitant Connor soon followed. Nurses and doctors were very adept at avoiding peopls, but the volunteers kept bumping into people and apologizing quietly. Connor felt claustrophobic, feared that his processors whirred too loudly in this silence, in the quiet.

     “...nor? Connor!”

     “Shhhh!!!”

     Connor started, blinkng a few times before registering Markus’ fear-filled face, worried about his friend. “Are you okay?”

     Connor scanned himself before nodding, allowing himself to be practically dragged to Felicia’s room. Markus conversed quietly with the male nurse standing outside of the room, before the nurse held the door open for the two. Connor was greeted by Felicia, who was seemingly unaware of Connor as the cause of her being in this very room. He never experienced such guilt for doing what he had to do.

     (I’m going back to where Connor and Markus had just arrived at Felicia’s room. Just to let those who are easily confused know.)

     Markus had feared when his friend’s breathing suddenly stopped for a prolonged period of time. When he tried to get Connor to respond, Connor wouldn’t even speak! Worry coarsed through his veins for his friend as he arrived at Felicia’s room.

     The male nurse’s look questioned Markus’ presence, and Markus whispered, “I’m here to see Felicia. After all, she is one of my close friends.”

     The male nurse responded just as quietly. “Do you have any note saying that you are allowed here?”

     Markus dug into his pants’ pocket and pulled out the note for the nurse to see. After examining it, the nurse handed the note back, and Markus put the note back into his pocket. Then the nurse held the door open for Connor and him to pass.

     Thanking the nurse quietly, Markus hurried in with Connor in tow. The door silently shut behind the two, having been oiled every month. Felicia greeted Markus and Connor with her warm smile, and Markus smiled back. If he had looked back, he would’ve seen Connor’s face fill with guilt before it washed away and Connor held a smile that could fool anyone, even Hank.

     Felicia said, “Good evening.” Then she made a thinking face. “Wait, is it evening?”

     Both guests shook their heads, one wishing to stay out of the way and the other simply not knowing what time it was. Connor sat in the chair at the foot of Felicia’s bed, while Markus took the seat to the left of Felicia.

     “Are you okay?” Markus asked loudly, and Felicia shushed him, holding up one finger. Connor quizzically tilted his head at the exchange between the two. Markus had covered his mouth, slowly bringing them down to ask, quieter this time, “Are you okay?”

     Felicia nodded enthusiastically, giggling softly at Markus’ sigh of relief. “You make it sound like I almost died or something. I only got shot in the leg.” Once Felicia finished speaking, she quickly glanced over at Connor to catch the slight break in Connor’s facade. Paying no more attention to Connor, she placed her attention on Markus.

     He had gasped at the way she treated a shot, and placed his hand on his chest to make his gasp more dramatic. “My god, you make it seem like a shot is the same as a splinter, nothing to worry about!” Again, she placed her finger on her lips and then lifted up two fingers, making it very clear that it was supposed to be silent in this place.

     After Markus covered his mouth again, she spoke. “Of course it is nothing compared to a zombie bite, which happened a lot to make that many zombies out there.” Markus brought his hands down and raised his right index finger, opening his mouth only to find he had nothing to say about that.

     Felicia smirked, acknowledging the fact that she was correct and he was not. Markus asked, “Are you sure you are okay?”

     Felicia smiled knowingly, creating a shiver up Connor’s synthetic spine. “Of course I am. Although, it is quite clear that you have not been told of the whole story.” A glance at Connor told him all he needed to know. Markus didn’t catch that glance, however, and was rather puzzled at what Felicia said.

     “What do you mean, ‘the whole story’?” Markus, again, spoke too loudly, and Felicia held up three fingers up. Markus gasped quietly, and almost begged to her in a whisper, “No, don’t kick me out, Felicia!”

     Her smile had no sincerity as she reached over and rang the bell. The nurse entered the room, and Felicia said, with no remorse, “Markus has spoken too loudly three times. Take him out of the hospital wing.” Felicia’s voice held an air of command, and her posture suggested that she was used to being in control, ordering others, and just holding that air of authority.

     The nurse complied, grabbing Markus’ hand loosely, yet firm. He almost dragged him out of the room, and Felicia waved goodbye. The nurse “escorted” Markus out of the hospital wing. A female nurse took his position at the door and was immediately summoned, only to be ordered to fetch a glass of water and to leave as soon as humanly possible.

     Now Connor understood why everyone was so uptight, and so quiet. Three strikes and you’re out. Evidence of this rule all of a sudden stood out like a sore thumb.

     Volunteers that had been a little too loud were “escorted” out of the hospital wing. Nurses that dropped a tray or two or walked a little too loudly were given a warning, and some visitors were being led away by nurses, obviously in the same position as Markus is in. The tension that Connor had lightly felt suddenly felt like a heavy weight on his shoulders.

     Connor realized that Felicia triggered Markus into talking a little too loud and used the rule as an excuse to get Markus to leave the two alone. He stood up abruptly and said, “I shall take my leave now.” But as soon as he finished, Felicia rung the bell, and the female nurse entered.

     “Can you help Connor back into his seat?” A hidden threat got Connor to comply, and soon he was seated into the seat Markus previously took. “Oh, and can you push that button right there on the seat and lock the door behind you? Thanks.” The nurse did as she was told, and after the nurse left, Connor was locked into his chair.

     He lightly pulled on it, only to realize that this was made probably by Felicia. The gleam in her eyes told him that yes, she did design the chair and this whole thing. She sweetly asked, “Why did you shoot me, Connor?”

     If Connor could sweat, a pool of sweat would have accumulated on the floor surrounding the chair right now. He swallowed, a tick he had no control over, and responded, “Um...because Sumo didn’t...trust you.” It would make no sense to lie to Felicia now, as she had opened the drawer of the nightstand and took out a little remote with 3 buttons.

     Her right index finger hovered above the button to Felicia’s right, going around in circles above it. The smile she had on was one that was pleased by how he responded. “Good, good. At least she did something right with you.”

     Connor was very confused, to put it simply. “Wait, are you talking about...?” The unspoken name lit up Felicia’s face.

     “Oh, your creator? Yes, I’m talking about her.” The way she spoke about Tsuki showed that she was fond of her. “The only thing that I don’t like about her, was that she spent some of her time every day to make... _you._ ” Felicia spat out the last word, hate practically coating the word “you”.

     Connor trembled, afraid of what Felicia might do to him. Felicia noticed him shivering and smiled sinisterly, her hate for him not even slightly hidden. “Oh, don’t worry! I won’t destroy you...yet.” It didn’t reassure Connor at all.

     He inquired, puzzled, “Why? Why aren’t you going to destroy me?”

     Felicia held a face of bewilderment. “Because my dear little Khulood would destroy me, of course! Besides, I didn’t even come here to destroy you, though that was something I pondered about. No, this was an experiment!” By this point, Felicia didn’t even seem like Felicia anymore.

     “No, I just wanted to see if I could come into the Neverland realm, and that was a success. Although, I cannot get into  _her_ Neverland yet.” Felicia deflated, her supposed “experiment” not having enough of a success to brighten her world just yet.

     “Well, I cannot give up yet.” Pressing a button, Felicia released Connor from his chair. “Besides, your time here is up. Hope that my sweet little Khulood will want to play with me again for me, okay?”

     Before Connor could respond, the female nurse opened the door and entered in a hurry, emotionlessly saying “Connor has overstayed his visit. Sorry to bother you.”

     As the nurse is taking ahold of Connor’s hand, Felicia smiled and waved goodbye. The nurse left the room with Connor dragged along for the ride, guiding him through the twisting hallways filled with people bustling to get to their destination.

     The two arrived at the exit, and the nurse let go of Connor’s hand, briskly turning, with her hands placed neatly behind her back, to join the bustle of the white, pristine hallways of the hospital again. Markus and the male nurse were leaning against the wall, waiting for Connor. When Connor came within view, the male nurse released Markus’ hand and also entered the hospital again.

     Markus jogged towards Connor, questions fighting for their chance to be said. What he asked was “Why did Felicia kick you out later?”

     Connor spoke only the truth. “She wanted to talk with me a little longer, though I cannot say why. Then she kicked me out only because there was a time limit on that visit.”

     With that, Connor pulled up the map inside his mind and began to walk back to his room, leaving Markus to stand alone in the hallway for a brief second. Then Markus ran to catch up to Connor, only slowing down once he had reached Connor. Then they walked at the same pace, side by side, until they had to seperate to get to their rooms. Markus with his annoying brother Leo, and Connor with a Hank in withdrawal and Sumo.

     Only when everyone was asleep, and Connor was processing the data from that day, did bare, lithe female feet touch the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven’t updated yet! T~T But I am not dead, and I plan on finishing this! I was updating on wattpad, though, so it will take a longer time to post chapters now. In the meantime, go read the Undead West! Try not to leave spoilers in here, I haven’t read it recently. K?


End file.
